After almost a decade, Jean Charest's Liberal government was ousted, replaced by Pauline Marois and the Parti Québécois. Should other provinces worry?

The issue: After almost a decade, Jean Charest’s Liberal government was ousted in Tuesday’s Quebec provincial election. In its place is a minority government led by the Parti Québécois and Pauline Marois. The PQ won 54 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Liberal Party with 50 seats, Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) with an unexpected 19 seats and Québec Solidaire with two seats. But what does a sovereigntist-led Quebec mean for the rest of Canada?

Quebec’s new premier, PaulineMarois: “I hoped for a majority but the people of Quebec decided otherwise. The time for bipartisanship is back and we must learn to work within this context and reality.”

Prime Minister StephenHarper: “We don’t believe Quebecers want to reopen the old constitutional quarrels of the past. Our government will remain focused on jobs, economic growth and good economic management. We believe economic issues and jobs are also the priority of Quebecers. In that sense, we will continue working with the government of Quebec on those common objectives.”

NDP Leader ThomasMulcair: “…We can have asymmetrical federalism that takes into account the differences between the regions and the very specific differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada in terms of its civil law, its majority French language, its cultural differences, these are all things that can be worked on. …There is nothing divisive about that unless somebody wants to play politics with it and make it divisive. Where the NDP comes in, is we’re all about building bridges. We will let the other parties blow up those bridges.”

Chantal Hébert,Toronto Star: “A clear majority of Quebec voters (60 per cent) supported non-sovereigntist parties on Tuesday’s provincial ballot, effectively removing the prospect of an imminent return to referendum politics from Harper’s plate. The Parti Québécois plan to showcase a federal Conservative government unresponsive to its demands in the hope of shoring up support for sovereignty is off to a poor start. When all is said and done, most Quebecers would still rather see Harper’s Conservatives out of office than their province out of the federation. That bodes better for Mulcair’s efforts to put down NDP roots in Quebec than for the Bloc Québécois’s hopes of a federal revival.”

Calgary Herald,Editorial: “The scenario of a minority government running the show in Quebec makes things that much easier for the federal government, too. With opposition parties holding the PQ firmly in check, Ottawa can choose the issues it will engage Quebec on. In the past, PQ governments seemed to hold the whip hand over the federal government, and this situation was further complicated by the presence in Parliament of the separatist Bloc Québécois. But when the orange crush swept Quebec during the 2011 federal election, dealing a near-death knell to the BQ and handing the NDP official Opposition status, Quebec’s vote for federalism was clear. It has only been reinforced by the results of Tuesday’s election. The voters’ message to the PQ couldn’t be clearer: Govern, but don’t go where previous PQ governments have gone.”

The Guardian, Charlottetown,Editorial: “But it’s outside Quebec where the real uncertainty lies. Given the relatively low interest in sovereigntist sentiments in her province at the moment, Marois isn’t likely to launch any aggressive initiatives toward that goal. But we can expect her to generate support for it wherever and whenever she can.

That’s where it could get interesting. We have a Quebec premier whose sovereignty agenda could well be advanced every time she gets a “no” from Ottawa. And in Ottawa, we have a prime minister who is widely perceived as having little difficulty saying “no” to anyone. As well, unlike previous prime ministers, Stephen Harper doesn’t have to work to maintain any support in Quebec; his base is elsewhere.

Will Marois’ strategy be to capitalize on these factors and try to foster an appetite for sovereignty? Will Prime Minister Harper adjust his own agenda to be more accommodating?”

Michael Den Tandt,Postmedia News: “(Pauline Marois) will foment for more provincial powers over immigration; more provincial powers over copyright rules; more provincial powers over foreign aid. Best of all she will foment for a Quebec citizenship certificate, presumably wallet-sized, that Quebecers can henceforth squeeze in next to their Amex and Visa cards. Only certain Quebecers would be allowed to receive the glistening new bauble, she said early in the campaign. She later recanted, saying even second-raters, sorry, I meant to say nonfrancophones, would be so blessed.

Either way, heaping these new contrived irritants onto the real ones such as $7.5-billion in federal equalization payments to Quebec this fiscal year, with the formula up for renewal in 2014, is a sure recipe for terrible strife. Right? There can’t help but be a crisis because, no matter what Ottawa does, it will never satisfy. Quebec, whose people were declared a nation within Canada by Parliament in 2006, already behaves in many respects like an independent country. What’s left to fight over?”

John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail: “Stephen Harper has been offered a powerful opportunity to smother the feeble sovereigntist flame. A Conservative government with little political stake in Quebec can convert that apparent weakness to strength, overturning the stale unity debates that have plagued this country for decades through what could be called a strategy of non-engagement…..Ms. Marois will demand new powers for Quebec over employment insurance, culture and communications, immigration and foreign policy, and who knows what else. The Conservatives, in response, will politely but firmly reject every demand. No negotiations. No accommodation. The federal focus will be on jobs, trade and eliminating the deficit — and nothing else. That, simply, is what a strategy of non-engagement entails.”

Stephanie Law

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.